Pattern Evidence: Poems

In Pattern Evidence his final collection Michael D. Riley sifts through the evidence of ordinary life in search of the patterns that lend shape and meaning to our days. Like a forensic scientist in search of the telling clue the poet scrutinizes his loves and his losses and like a trial attorney in pursuit of the truth he interrogates and cross-examines participants in his own past and in the drama of human existence. Set largely in the suburban world outside Lancaster Pennsylvania Rileys pages are filled with friends and neighbors lovers and grandmothers pines and pin oaks lawn mowers and snow blowers all of which body forth the mystery of daily-ness. This book documents Rileys evolution as an artist offering poems that span his career from early to late demonstrating the poets characteristically broad range of interests and simultaneously his constant return to those things that matter most namely family faith and his devotion to his art. Pattern Evidence constitutes the summation of a lifetime of close and careful observation and showcases Rileys gifts as a poet: his keen eye his sharp wit his capacious mind his practiced hand and his large heart. This book is a final farewell to and a celebration of a life well-lived and well-loved.